- Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: October 2009
I should’ve linked to this earlier in the month but there’s plenty of recommendations left - The Electric’s Children’s Cinema Club
Screen WM has the listings for this month’s kiddies club at the Electric with films and creative workshops - Shop « Polarbear, spoken word artist
Polarbear has a download shop. It took me about 30s between hearing this and buying his album. Highly recommended - Paul Murphy Sings Songs
Paul Murpy from The Destroyers and Songwriters Cafe has a blog
I meant to write this up a while back and was reminded by Polarbear appearing on Radio 3’s The Verb (click here to listen again, he’s on at 11mins) the other night.
I’ve gone on a bit about how good I think Polarbear (Steve Camden to his mum) is and a few weeks back I went to see his show ‘If I Cover My Nose You Can’t See Me’ at the REP (who joint-commissioned it with others). In short (and I’d be prepared to go on at length if you really want) it was brilliant.
After the show everyone was ushered up to the REP’s mezzanine where musical partner Afrosaxon was manning the decks and graphic designer Goonism was sketching characters from the show. We also had a reading from one of Polarbear’s inspirations – a fantastic lady whose name, I’m ashamed to say, I didn’t get.
The photo below might need a bit of explaining. Polarbear works with the West Brom-based Multistory on arts projects with kids, doing all sorts including making these masks (his black eye is make-up from the show, by the way).
Anyway, it was great and if/when he comes back it’d be well worth checking his show out. For that matter, I reckon spoken word in general is a hugely underrated artform. I know there are a few things about but if you know of/organise anything of that ilk around Birmingham then feel free to hit the comments below with detais of your next event.
All photos by Lee Allen of Front Row Photos.
8Sixteen32 is on at The Rep from 5-8 November. You’re invited “to follow the intertwining paths of five MCs as they go head-to-head in a fierce lyrical battle”.
The Decypher Collective presented a work in progress back in 2007 but this here is the finished article. The collective:
originally formed after taking part in huge grime workshops put on by Punch Records and the Rep theatre. Hailing from various crews and production houses from all over Birmingham these intervals came together to develop the UKs first ever example of Grime Theatre
It’s the list of people involved that made my ears prick up though – Punch, Polarbear, Charlie Dark and Mark de Clive Lowe.
Here’s the trailer:
And here’s the flyer:
I’ve just booked my tickets for this and can’t wait.
Spoken word/hip hop lyricist Polarbear will be performing ‘If I Cover My Nose You Can’t See Me‘ will be at The Door from 14 to 16 October. See the vid to see what Polarbear’s about:
and here’s the flyer:
I’ve heard a rumour about some aftershow parties somewhere but I’ve not had anything confirmed, so let’s just keep that between us for now.
Before we get to the interview, you need to know that PolarBear will be at the Garrick Theatre in Lichfield on 9 July – details after the interview. Anyway, I’ll leave Frankie to get on with things…
When Frankie Met Poet/MC PolarBear… or didn’t! Due to being immensely popular an arranged meeting never materialized and instead the two conversed via email:
Frankie: So firstly, the new show “If I cover my nose you can’t see me” is described as a story about what happens to what we used to want. So what does that mean and what should audiences expect?
PolarBear: The story is about the idea that what we plan as kids often gets completely lost. Some part of us is always a kid and that somewhere those plans stay with us, it’s just that grown up stuff covers over them.
Audiences can expect a story about a 10 year-old boy and a man of 28 as their lives intertwine and they both make decisions that will completely change their lives.
You’re starting off in London too. When and where will Birmingham audiences get to see the show?
Yeah gonna do a couple nights at Purcell Room, Southbank centre which is exciting with Goonism doing live art work and a music event after. Will be doing some one offs here and there and come to Birmingham REP in October this year, I think around the 17th/18th. Goonism will be there too so be good to show the finished article to brummies.
On your Myspace page you call it ‘The best thing I’ve ever performed’ and praise the team who you worked with, including director Yael Shavit. A lot of people who write and perform their own pieces also choose to direct it. What made you get a separate director involved and how was the experience of working with her?
I honestly believe that you can’t direct yourself. Not properly. Just like you can’t edit yourself. Not properly. It’s important to get someone else’s eyes involved. With Yael (Shavit) it was a matter of me liking her work and her appreciation of a story and realistic characters and trusting that she could get the best out of me.
Working with her has honestly been the best thing ever for my performance. We understand each other and trust each other, which feels like it is the basis for a good creative relationship.
The production also features music by Foy Vance. I’ve always had him down as the acoustic/folk type. How did that collaboration come about?
I met Foy a couple of years ago on a TV thing and we became friends. I like what he does and he likes what I do and we started working together when we got chance and I asked him to create some sounds very early on in the process.
Moving onto Afrobear… is that a musical partnership? Is the recorded music on your myspace page part of Afrobear or is that part of an individual project?
Afrobear is a long-standing relationship between myself and my friend Len who produces under the moniker Afrosaxon. Basically he is my favourite beat maker ever and I get to write rhymes and make tunes with him as AFROBEAR. It’s our version of what hip-hop should be today.
There is, at any one time, maybe one or a couple AFROBEAR tracks on my myspace and these will be credited clearly. Other stuff is work with other producers or just me on my own.
Why have you called the album ‘Not Shit’? Are you expecting backlash!? What can we expect from it?
Not too fussed about backlash to tell you the truth. ‘Not Shit’ is a term we use to describe stuff we like, a lot. It’s a Brummie trait of not being that impressed by much so the norm is ‘shit’ and good stuff is ‘Not Shit’.
You’ve called Brighton your favourite place to perform. Why?
I’ve been lucky enough to perform in lots of places in the last three years and had some great experiences and to date, no terrible ones. Some ones I’ve not particularly enjoyed but none that have gone really badly. With Brighton, I performed at a place called the Komedia and the crowd were the warmest most respectful audience to every single performer. It was pretty inspiring and I’m quite a cynical person really. Amazing.
Good people down there.
Do you think it is important to remain in Birmingham or are you planning to move to London? Is Brum part of your ‘creative process.’
I’m actually based in London now due to my family. My girlfriend works in theatre and her work meant she couldn’t leave London and we had a little boy and being free-lance I could be based anywhere so I went down. I’m up in Brum at least two days a week for workshop work and so it feels like I live in two places, but it’s working. It’s important to me to be from Birmingham.
It will always be home. The people I grew up with here and know now are the inspiration for everything I have written so far.
And finally… after Colin Murray played ‘Jessica’ on his show you must have got a lot more interest. What was the inspiration for ‘Jessica’ and is Jessica real?
Nice one Colin Murray. I mean it’s nice to reach more people’s ears I guess and I didn’t even know it was gonna happen. He’s played it a few times now which is nuts but good exposure.
Jessica is based on reality and was inspired by a few experiences in my life as well as things that haven’t happened yet.
Jessica is very real. But maybe I changed her name.
PolarBear will be appearing at the Garrick Theatre at 10pm on Wed 9 July. Tickets are only £6.50 – which is an absolute bargain.
This year’s Lichfield Festival starts on 3 July and closes on the 13th with a programme of music, theatre, visual arts and film.
A nice touch (cos I look for this things) is a blog by the Festival Director, Richard Hawley, who has been posting his thoughts up all this week.
You can see the festival programme but it’s worth highlighting the local talent on show:
- Dancer, director and chereographer, Rosie Kay, will perform her current project, The Wild Party, for the last time at the Garrick Theatre on Sat 5 July.
- Thomas Trotter, Birmingham’s city organist, will play at Lichfield Cathedral on 7 and 9 July.
- PolarBear, described as ‘one of Britain’s foremost performance poets‘, is doing a late night session at the Garrick Studio on 9 July. I’m listening to the tracks on his MySpace as I type this and he’s really (really) good.
